Community College Football: Pirates dreaming of bowl berth after 38-17 win over Santa Ana

For nearly a decade, the Orange Coast College football team had little to look forward to this late in the season, except perhaps the postseason banquet.

But eight games into the 2015 campaign, the Pirates are looking ahead to a Southern Conference showdown with highly regarded district rival Golden West and a possible bowl game, following a 38-17 conference win over Santa Ana on Saturday at Santa Ana Stadium.

OCC (5-3, 3-1 in conference), ranked No. 19 in the state, rolled through the Dons (1-7, 0-4) and has won five of its last six games.

Golden West, ranked No. 2 in the state, entered Saturday night’s conference game at Palomar with a 7-0 record, 3-0 in conference.

“It’s a league championship game next week,” OCC Coach Kevin Emerson told his players after the Pirates defeated their oldest rival Saturday and claimed the ceremonial Victory Flag that goes to the game’s annual winner.

“It’s a huge game with all the implications,” Emerson said of playing Golden West on Saturday at 6 p.m. at OCC. “It all comes down to this one game, basically.”

A win over Golden West, and Grossmont in the regular-season finale, could mean at least a share of the conference title for OCC, which reached the five-win mark for only the third time in the last nine years.

A loss by conference-leading Saddleback (5-0 in conference after beating Fullerton on Saturday), which meets Golden West in two weeks, would also be necessary for OCC to earn a portion of the conference crown. OCC lost to Saddleback, 35-22, last week.

OCC sophomore center Brett Landon, who played in last season’s 55-7 loss to Golden West, believes much has changed in one year.

“We’ll be totally ready for [Golden West],” Landon said. “Last year, when they won, they rang that bell [perpetual trophy that goes to the annual winner]. I’ll never listen to that bell again. I’ve heard [the Rustlers] are doing pretty well this year, but so are we. We’ll see what we can do.”

The Pirates did just about what they wanted to do early against the Dons, scoring on their first two possessions, then later taking a 21-0 lead two plays into the second quarter.

OCC needed just three plays to cover 56 yards after Darrel Watts returned the opening kickoff 44 yards. Sophomore receiver Stefan Derrick caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Mason Dossey to put the visitors on the scoreboard just 52 seconds into the contest.

After an interception by sophomore cornerback Derrick Worthy, Derrick capped a 10-play, 64-yard drive by catching a four-yard touchdown pass from Dossey to make it 14-0.

Derrick, who entered the game leading the state with 12 touchdown receptions, finished with six catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns. He now has 49 catches for 933 yards on the season and his 14 touchdown receptions are just three shy of tying the school single-season record set by Junior Tagaloa in 1987. Derrick needs 278 yards to break Tagaloa’s single-season record and 19 catches to match Mark Munson’s record-setting total achieved last season.

Dossey was 15 for 28 for 207 yards and two touchdowns passing, while sophomore running backs Kyle White and Daniel Rodriguez combined for 162 rushing yards for the winners.

Freshman defensive lineman Jonathan Jennings recovered an errant shotgun snap at the Santa Ana eight-yard line to set up the Pirates’ third touchdown.

A 32-yard run by White was the big play on a six-play, 83-yard touchdown drive that gave OCC a 28-10 lead with 57 seconds left in the third quarter.

After Dan Bjurman’s 29-yard field goal padded the lead midway through the fourth quarter, Matthew Nelson returned an onside kickoff 45 yards to finalize the scoring.

The OCC defense held the Dons to 86 yards rushing on 37 attempts, though Santa Ana finished with 366 total offensive yards, just two shy of OCC’s total.

“We came out like we did against every other team,” Landon said. “We had our heads straight and were focused on winning.”

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ORANGE COAST 38, SANTA ANA 17

OCC 14 – 7 – 7 – 10 – 38

Santa Ana 0 – 3 – 7 – 7 – 17

FIRST QUARTER

OCC – Derrick 41 pass from Dossey (Bjurman kick), 14:08.

OCC – Derrick 4 pass from Dossey (Bjurman kick), 8:17.

SECOND QUARTER

OCC – Rodriguez 1 run (Bjurman kick), 14:34.

SA – Mack 29 FG, 6:43.

THIRD QUARTER

SA – Barnett 32 pass from Habash (Mack kick), 4:04.

OCC – Rodriguez 5 run (Bjurman kick), 0:57.

FOURTH QUARTER

OCC – Bjurman 29 FG, 8:45.

SA – Barnett 25 pass from Burke (Mack kick), 1:39.

OCC – Nelson 45 kickoff return (Shenk kick), 1:30.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

OCC – White, 14-92, Rodriguez, 19-70.

SA – Hanley, 16-79.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

OCC – Dossey, 15-28-1, 207, 2 TDs.

SA – Habash, 20-39-1, 255, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

OCC – Derrick, 6-142, 2 TDs.

SA – Barnett, 8-134, 2 TDs.